Newbie question on recapping

[KidD01]

Hello,

A quick question regarding recapping on motherboards. Is recapping means changing all electrolytic caps on the board?

Thanks in advance.

[shovenose]

Re: Newbie question on recapping

Not necceassrily. Oftentimes you only have to replace the obviously failed and/or all the ones of junk brands. Sometimes there are good caps mixed in with the bad ones that don't need to be replaced.

[mariushm]

Re: Newbie question on recapping

No. Usually the capacitors are grouped by functionality... a set of capacitors near the cpu handles the processor power, a group takes care of the memory power, others take care of pci express slot, others handle the chipset and auxiliary functions.

The capacitors near the processor may go bad or go weaker sooner due to heat or simply the fact that they're "stressed" more throughout the computer's use. So for these, it's safer to replace the whole set, not just the ones that look bad, because you can't tell how much life the others have.
The capacitors taking care of other functions may be just fine for longer time.

[KidD01]

Re: Newbie question on recapping

Thanks for the replies. I got 4 socket 478 motherboards which are problematic in stability. after careful inspection they may require recap. At first those boards use "non branded" PSUs which also got cap problem. It took me a week to figure out capacitor problem, the caps not bulging so at first I thought it's safe *face palm*

Time to do some cap shopping now

[mariushm]

Re: Newbie question on recapping

Just be careful you can't buy just any kind of capacitor that has the same uF value and voltage rating.

On motherboards in particular, the replacement capacitors need to have low ESR and high ripple values, so if you don't know how to determine those do yourself a favor and show here the boards and maybe we can suggest where to buy and what to buy to be sure the replacements will work.

[KidD01]

Re: Newbie question on recapping

thanks, marisuhm. I found LXZ and KZH seller on my local area. No idea if it's the real thing or notthough. On the bad side the PSU I recapped can not start up. Will post with photo on new thread to ask advise on it. It's china made non branded type